Community Structure and Health Assessment of Macrobenthic Assemblages at Spring and Summer in Geoje-Hansan Bay, Southern Coast of Korea

Effects of finfish aquaculture on biogeochemistry and bacterial communities associated with sulfur cycles in highly sulfidic sediments

“…Because of the abundance of sulfate in seawater, sulfate reduction is regarded as the predominant C org oxidation pathway in coastal sediments, especially in organic-enriched fish-farm sediments (Holmer et al 2005, Hyun et al 2013. Major environmental concerns regarding the dominance of C org oxidation resulting from sulfate reduction in fish-farm sediments include the accumulation of highly toxic, reactive hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S), which affects the diversity and community structure of the benthic macrofaunal and microbial communities (Lee et al 2004, Bissett et al 2006, Heilskov et al 2006, Kutti et al 2007, Castine et al 2009, Kawahara et al 2009, Yoon et al 2009, Hargrave 2010, Valdemarsen et al 2015, Jung et al 2016.…”

“…Because large-scale aquaculture has such a large effect on sediment biogeochemistry and coastal ecosystems via benthic−pelagic coupling (Holmer et al 2005, Strain & Hargrave 2005, Hyun et al 2013, it is important to develop a tool to assess the environmental conditions of fish-farm sediments (MOF 2016). Total organic carbon content and concentrations of acid volatile sulfur compounds in the sediments have been proposed as chemical indicators for monitoring the environmental changes caused by fish farms and for evaluating farming capacity (Yokoyama 2003, Cho et al 2013, Jung et al 2016. However, the environmental assessment of fish-farm sediments relying solely on sulfur compounds is not useful for identifying major biogeochemical processes because these compounds are quickly recycled within the sediments (Canfield et al 2005, Hyun et al 2013, NIFS 2013.…”

“…Additionally, biological indicators have been proposed for monitoring the environmental changes resulting from aquaculture. For example, changes of benthic macrofauna assemblages are generally recommended as a proxy for monitoring the impacts of cage farming (Macleod et al 2008, Yoon et al 2009, Jung et al 2016. However, investigation of the benthic community using video surveillance and the identification of macrofauna and meiofauna to the level of individual species is expensive and requires professional skill to make an accurate assessment of the impact (Castine et al 2009).…”